Talent Night 2004 gala show in the State Theater

One of two performances by Fredy's Dance Group opened the grand gala show in the Kosice State Theater on Friday evening, September 3rd, the finale of the Talent Night 2004 competition. The announcement of the results in the 4th annual edition of this contest for budding Slovak performers, who in this way gain from U. S. Steel Kosice the opportunity to raise their public profile, get themselves out of the shadows into the limelight and step out on the road to fame, was attended by many guests and personalities of social and cultural life.
"We are very pleased to see the interest in this competition growing every year," said U. S. Steel Kosice President Christopher Navetta in his speech to the audience from the stage. "This year, compared with last year, the number of participants has tripled. I am highly impressed with the number of talented people in Slovakia - and today's Talent Night is proof of that. This evening is one of the many events organized by U. S. Steel Kosice to support the talents and creativity of young people from Kosice and the surrounding region. This support demonstrates our sincere interest in the development and success of these young talents, as well as the pleasure that we take in helping promising artistes set out on their future careers," the President said.
The fight for the chance to reach the final round of Talent Night 2004 started in the June auditions, involving 77 bands, 68 dance groups and 83 solo singers. Out of the total number of 806 performers - the highest in the history of the competition so far - the three juries, one created for each category, selected twelve finalists. The Musical Bands category was won by the group Good Fancy, the best of the Solo Singers was Veronika Kupcova, and first place in the Dance category went to the M21 dance group.
This edition of Talent Night was the first in which special prizes were awarded. The Jury's Award for intensive, long-term support for the creative activity of talented youth was presented by recording company director Martin Sarvas to great applause to Secovce elementary art school teacher Juraj Begala. Winner of the daily newspaper Korzar Readers' Prize - a Panasonic radio-cassette and CD player - was Martin Krausz. The prize from the recording company Universal Music, which involves their singles being incorporated into a compilation CD being prepared for the end of this year and the recording of more songs, was awarded to two competitors - the band Good Fancy and the singer Veronika Kupcova.
The theater audience also chose their favorite performers, and based on the results of the voting presented in Slovak by USSK Vice-president IT Peter Richardson, the Audience's Award went to Natasa Havlikova. Highlights from Friday's gala show of the 4th edition of the U. S. Steel Talent Night contest will be shown by Slovak Television on Monday, September 20th at 8.55 pm on Channel One, and repeated the next day, September 21st, at 12.30 pm, also on One.

USSK Summer Olympiad

Friday, September 3rd at 3 pm saw the commencement of the 14th edition of the annual Summer Olympiad of U. S. Steel Kosice. The Olympiad was officially opened by U. S. Steel Kosice President Christopher Navetta. After the grand opening ceremony the sportspeople went off to their separate sports venues, where they began their competitions in earnest. Friday saw the Olympiad competitors engage in combat in the five-a-side soccer, men's volleyball, table tennis, squash, tennis and skittles tournaments.
The competitions in these sports continued throughout the day on Saturday as well, and the medal races were also joined by the runners, inline skaters, cyclists, football-tennis, softball and women volleyball players. The last to achieve their results at 6 pm on Saturday were the skittlers. Later that evening at 8 pm outside the Ferrocentrum Social Center the official announcement of the results and presentation of prizes took place.

Internship with its own tradition now

"It was great, a fantastic team, and I learned a load of new things," said Peter Vysny, now a 4th-year student at the Faculty of Business Administration in Kosice of the Bratislava University of Economics, at the farewell meeting of participants in U. S. Steel Kosice's paid summer internship scheme with representatives of management of the Company, divisions and sections.
After their two months of work in specific projects, training sessions and workshops, and after picking up practical experience in both production and in administration, none of the other 45 young people on the scheme hesitated in expressing similar sentiments. For many of them, two months at the works meant a unique experience to learn another aspect of the things they already knew in theory from college.
They also tried out running the firm, and became familiar with particular aspects of company management. At the official dinner, on behalf of all the students Maria Melnikova from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations thanked the management and the tutors for this opportunity. Vice-president Human Resources Miroslav Kiralvarga pointed out in his speech that the Internship program already has a tradition in our Company. He praised and thanked all the students for their two months of work. It could be that in the future they will be the very ones who swell the ranks of the steelmakers.